Historic Food In Mallorca, Spain

by Raphael Kadushin

on 06/20/13 at 11:00 AM

The British restaurant critic (and film producer) Michael Winner died this winter. The loss went without much notice in the U.S. but in England there was the kind of keening he deserved, because the British still appreciate the quirky, unwavering voice.

Winner never tried to be stylish and never cared much if he had fan base; he never wrote with one eye on the daily tally of like clicks. He knew that wanting to be liked is probably the worst reason to write. Instead he was acerbic, cranky, and unapologetic and he didn't try to disguise his criticism with a lot of trendified niceties and or too much food talk. He usually thought what he was eating was unjustified hype but occasionally he tasted something good, and when it was good the meal became, in his suddenly passionate words, well word, "historic".

I'm not sure I'd call any of the meals I had in Mallorca this spring historic, but I would call a lot of them good, and the island deserves a visit in any case. Once dismissed as the very image of a cheap, big-box weekend getaway, floating east of Barcelona with its sister Balearic islands, Mallorca (aka Majorca) has reimagined itself in the last few years. Forget the tacky stretch of crowded beach lined by concrete hotels sitting outside Palma. The real news is the way Mallorca has recently championed slow travel and started to recover its soulful self, by turning country farmsteads into pastoral inns, dusting off its artisanal crafts, and rediscovering some of the best culinary traditions in Spain. What to eat?

If you're passing through Palma, and you should, stop at La Boveda, justifiably famous for its tapas (supernal calamari) and its rendition of the first and last thing you should eat in Mallorca: pa amb oli, bread and oil, which, like all the best dishes, is a simple one (you take dense dark Mallorcan bread, brush it with the sweeted vine-ripened tomatoes, and drizzle it with pure Mallorcan olive oil).

Then walk slowly through the old Gothic quarter, dip into the venerable food market, and end up at Cap Rocat just outside of town--a stone fortress turned hyper-dramatic hotel cum resort where the Sea Club restaurant, overlooking the Bay of Palma, serves a dish of seared squid with raisins, pine nuts and a tangled crown of sauteed onions.

Finally head to Deia which is Mallorca's spiritual heart and artiest epicenter. The old town, a tumble of golden stone buildings perched between high mountain peaks and the sea, is one of Europe's most fluid sculptures; it looks like it was whittled down, organically, from those steep mountain crags.

The place to stop here is the classic La Residencia, one of the first of the island's rural manor houses to be converted into an inn. Renovated with an understated sense of place (beamed ceilings; whitewashed walls) that knows when to stop, La Resie features the very serious El Olivo restaurant. But there is also the more casual Son Moragues cafe, where you can sit on a terrace under leafy branches, facing Deia's handsome profile, scented by the bright perfume of the surrounding lemon trees, and eat slabs of toasted bread topped by briney anchovies from the Cantabrian Sea, and then a warm salad of silky scallops tossed with wild mushrooms and big coins of smoky Iberian ham (pictured).

Winner stopped here several times and wanted, at one point, to stay. Even if you're not paying homage to his uncompromising voice, there isn't a better way to inaugurate summer.

A gold star for Raphael Kadushin for uncovering some of the island's best jewels and there's still more to discover with 5 new luxury hotels opening this summer. They are all offering their own take on local Mediterranean food so Mallorca is MOST definitely worth a visit!

nativewoods
02:23:19 PM on
06/22/13

I'll miss those hilarious Winner's Dinners columns. Here's hoping his spirit will endure in the places and among the things in life he really knew how to enjoy.

KerryandTom
11:22:45 AM on
06/21/13

Love: "He knew that wanting to be liked is probably the worst reason to write. Instead he was acerbic, cranky, and unapologetic and he didn't try to disguise his criticism with a lot of trendified niceties and or too much food talk." Thanks for this, Raphael...